Moving Mountains (Patrick Kane)

Character Contradictions .16

Patrick

When it comes to watching tv shows and movies everyone has their thing. Marvel, DC, Disney, Star Wars, Anime, cartoons, Harry Potter. Dramas, educational, thrillers, supernatural. Everybody has that something that gets them excited. They have to watch it every chance they get. No matter how many times they see a episode or movie, no matter what they learn about their favorite character, they love it. Couldn't get enough. It's stuff like this that makes us happy, fiction is the best place to be when reality sucks.

And I guess that explains why Valerie struggles so much, usually people like her have something to hyper fixate on. A world to drift off to where she doesn't have to worry all the time. Instead she faces reality with a attitude made so she doesn't have to fantasize to find peace. She looks at the world for what it is, in all it's reality. Never knowing what it's like to see herself as a super hero or a demon or a crime fighter. She just knows what she is, never what she wants to be.

For me I liked Marvel movies, that was my thing. I read the comics as a kid and the MCU has really taken off lately. Iron Man is one of my favorite movies and they're doing some great stuff with the original characters, a lot different than what they did with the Fantastic Four or X-Men movies. With the success of the Avenger movies and the individual superhero movies they were moving fast. I've seen every movie of the MCU a few times so I was excited to see Captain America: Civil War. It looks like a intense movie with the characters we all know and love and some new ones. It was going to be hard to beat Age of Ultron but I couldn't wait to see if they did it.

After some convincing I get Valerie to come see the movie with me. She was worried because she hasn't see the other movies and doesn't know the characters. But I promise to explain anything she doesn't know and to buy her popcorn so she finally agrees to come with me.

"What's the last movie you saw in a theatre" I wonder as we get to our seats. I know she said it's been a while but that could mean anything. She sits next to me before placing the popcorn in her lap.

"Honestly it was Shrek" she claims and my eyes go big.

"Seriously" I gasp. That movie came out in 2001, that's 16 years ago.

"Yeah. I saw it with a friend from middle school. Haven't been back since" she shrugs.

"Well you're in for a great return to the big screen, this is a great atmosphere to experience a movie. The nerds eat these kind of things up and the casuals always get the bigger picture. There's a lot of hype around this movie so it should be a good one" I admit.

The movie gets started and immediately she starts with the questions. Why does the guy with wings need a little guy with wings? Who is the pretty goth girl with red hair? Why is Captain America wearing a mask when everyone knows who he is? Where's the big green guy? All legit questions but not exactly dire to the plot. At least I know she's paying attention and she cares enough to ask questions. At this rate she will leave the theatre knowing just as much I do.

We get to the civil war part of the movie and I have to admit, it was sick. The plot inside of the plot really made this movie enjoyable. The addition of Black Panther and Spiderman and Ant Man to the group was insane and the acting made it so it wasn't cheesy. It's fiction but there's a little truth in every lie. It makes you think is it more important to be right or wrong or more important to stick together? This movie was forcing people to take sides, then you have people like Nat who truly believes in one thing even when her gut tells her different. Yet no one really knows the whole point of them fighting, not until the end. The movie was great. It was well written and laid out a lot of paths for our hero's. I couldn't wait for Black Panther and Spider-Man to have movies of their own.

We walk out of the theatre and I think Valerie truly enjoyed it. She was full of questions but I wasn't the Marvel nerd I once was. So I try my best to answer them.

"The Captain America character is intriguing. A man built by the government and for the government not wanting to listen to the same people he followed blindly for so long. His whole reason for becoming this persona was to aid the same people he was now defying. It goes into this patriotic American view we have where we pick and choose which laws to follow and which ones to ignore. The institution itself is a good idea but execution is wrong. You said he became this character simply to help this country in the Second World War. You mean to tell me he crashed a plane in the ocean to save the same kinds of people he is fighting now?

If you ask me it was more important to keep the Avengers together than if they really agreed or disagreed with the accords. It's not like a bunch of people randomly came together to put them in their place, they had caused physical and emotional damage far beyond what they can repair. Involving innocent people with their self righteous acts trying to prove some point. So why did he fight that so hard? Even when he knew about Tony's parents, even when he knew what he was doing was hurting people, people he cared about. Look at Wanda, she was distraught after she blew everything up. And though she changed her mind the guilt, the fear, it was all because Cap let her go too far.

I don't know. I guess I just thought his character wouldn't be such a contradiction" she admits.

"So who's side were you on" I wonder.

"Neither side was right and neither side was wrong. They shouldn't have been acting on their own vices, their fights got a lot of people killed if what I saw on the montage of the conflicts they were in was true. No one that powerful should have jurisdiction wherever they please. Most of those people were saved from one thing only to have to deal with figuring out what happens next. They came, tore thing up and then left, like nothing happened. Moved on to the next fight leaving a trail of broken hearts and broken homes behind.

But at the same time acting as someone's overpowered guard dogs is ridiculous. You don't need permission to do the right thing. Tony wanted the easy answer not realizing just how much of their freedom he is giving up. And in the end it became a personal vendetta just like it always does. The whole idea was to make them upset with each other and they got played like a puppet.

Until we stop looking at everything as right and wrong, good and bad, we will never get better. This movie proved it" she explains.

"That's quite insightful. Especially for someone who has never seen a Marvel movie" I admit.

"I would like to watch some others. It's a little backwards but I do like the dynamic. The conflict but the overcoming their differences to help each other out" she says.

"You should see Thor. He's pretty great. A powerful god with blonde hair and blue eyes" I say.

"Just my type" she smiles.